‘House of the Dragon’ Wants You to Trust ‘Game of Thrones’ Again
The jig was up the minute Queen (indeed, Queen) Rhaenyra Targaryen forged her eyes away from the fire and seemingly established her sights on revenge: This new Match of Thrones exhibit will give you what the final Video game of Thrones display did not. It was as telegraphed as the fact that [spoiler] was heading to die the next he bought on that dragon. This exhibit needs to restore the religion of every viewer who felt burned the previous time by providing them what they want. Particularly: a woman completely ready to ascend the Iron Throne who will not lose herself in the process—and dragons, dragons, and additional dragons.
However, House of the Dragon has a lengthy way to go to rebuild that rely on.
Initially, if you have not viewed Sunday’s finale episode and really don’t want to know what occurs, stop studying. 2nd, if you have not previously variety of noticed wherever this display needs to take you, you haven’t been paying attention. One particular of the positive aspects of Dragon, as opposed to Recreation of Thrones, continues to be that the clearly show is based mostly on a pretty established-in-stone bit of text—George R. R. Martin’s Fireplace & Blood. As opposed to its predecessor, which ended its operate in 2019 just before Martin could end producing the books on which it was centered, HBO’s new fantasy thingamabob has guardrails. Indeed, the show’s creator, Ryan J. Condal, could pick out to remove them, but why? Absolutely he is aware there is very little down that route but suffering.
Thus, Home of the Dragon finished its initially period with Rhaenyra hearing that her father, who experienced named her his heir, has died and her brother (practically from a different mom), Aegon II, has taken the Iron Throne. Like Daenerys Targaryen, she is a white-haired female (Targaryen genes are no joke) established to assert her place. As opposed to Daenerys—or, alternatively, in contrast to Daenerys towards the stop of her quest for power—she has no “wish to rule more than a kingdom of ash and bone.” She desires to unite the realm and all that. She, according to her former mom-in-legislation, Rhaenys—whose son, let’s not forget about, she experienced killed so that she could marry her uncle, Daemon—is “the only just one who has shown restraint” as the rest of her council phone calls for war. Most of all, she is someone’s whose character arc has a blueprint.
Audiences, of system, are meant to see the parallels. Sport of Thrones positions Daenerys, prior to her downfall, as the one particular to root for. Someone with a rightful claim to the Iron Throne who aims to absolutely free people and consider her put as the 1 queen to rule them all. Dilemma was, her one-minded determination to use the crown ended up overpowering all of her “I’m heading to crack the wheel” transform-the-activity communicate, and she made the decision to torch King’s Landing somewhat than bring about some terrific Targaryen reign. For those who experienced been rooting for her, it was a significant, largely unintelligible bummer.
House of the Dragon feels poised to treatment that. While equally shows appear to be intent on torturing their woman figures (Dragon just appears to be to have swapped assaults for very brutal birthing scenes), the new Thrones show is at least striving to show Rhaenrya’s evolution from a degree-headed possible unifier of the realm to a person ready to pick violence to rule the 7 Kingdoms. Dany’s grip on her purpose commenced to drop apart when she fell for Jon Snow, who she later identified out was also her nephew and had a claim to the Iron Throne as well. Granted, that would mess anybody up, but right after every little thing Daenerys had endured, her response felt out of character. Viewing Home of the Dragon, a single only hopes Rhaenyra doesn’t do anything similarly out of kinds.
Hope, as Corly Velaryon states, is the fool’s ally—but possibly she will not. At the summary of Sunday’s finale, she learns her son Lucerys has died on dragonback. In that second her eyes seem towards the camera, and it’s apparent any feelings of peace are gone. But unlike Dany’s scorched-earth seize of King’s Landing, Rhaenyra’s prepare for revenge is at the heart of Fire & Blood, some thing on the webpage, not the last salvo of a exhibit fumbling to its summary. Her future is by now written what will issue is if Residence of the Dragon follows it.
